Spelling Bee

#SOL21 Day 2

Today is day 2 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge, and I had left my computer ready to relax on the couch. I was going to sew faces on some of my bees–spelling bees, which will decorate the certificates for our students. Of course, what else is there to do on yet another evening at home?

As I sat down though, fortunately I remembered to come back and write this post.

We are conducting a virtual spelling bee for any students who want to participate. We had 52 sign up by Sunday’s deadline. Then today we had them come to a scheduled preliminary placement test on Google Forms. Just a multiple-choice spelling test that should help us determine which of three groups to put them in. Surprisingly we only had 28 of them who completed the preliminary round. Hmmm….I’m not sure why. Maybe we will hear from some tomorrow. I don’t know what we’ll do.

We will have three different levels of the final spelling competitions on Zoom, based on the student’s score on the preliminary. We will give them some time to study words now. Then we are thinking of three rounds–

  • Round 1–they each write the same word in the chat to the host (judge).
  • Round 2–we’ll say the same word and everyone will write it on a whiteboard. On the count of three, they will turn it around and show the judges.
  • Round 3 would be a traditional spelling bee where each child left in the competition gets a different word and spells it orally.

There will be double eliminations, so everyone can make one free mistake.

Sadly, we have to think of how to do this in a way that will discourage cheating.

I wonder if anyone has any ideas for pulling this off! Please feel free to offer any advice on any part of this, as obviously we are building this plane in the air.

(Oh, my goodness–as I wrote that last line I did a quick search and other people, of course, have already been building that plane.) Now, I’ll go watch some Zoom spelling bee videos, and then I’ll get back to finishing the faces on my bees.

Crocheted bees on a tray in various stages of being completed, along with some pins and needles and thread..